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Proverbs 22:17-24:22 — Sayings of the Wise

Prov.22.17-24.22

¹⁷Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise, and set your heart on my knowledge. ¹⁸For it is pleasant if you keep them within you, if together they are ready on your lips. ¹⁹So that your trust may be in Yahweh, I have made this known to you today, yes, to you. ²⁰Have I not written for you thirty sayings of counsel and knowledge, ²¹to make known to you the certainty of words of truth, so that you may return words of truth to those who send you? ²²Do not rob the poor because he is poor, and do not crush the afflicted at the gate, ²³for Yahweh will plead their case and despoil of life those who despoil them. ²⁴Do not befriend an angry man, and do not go with a man of wrath, ²⁵lest you learn his ways and take a snare for yourself. ²⁶Do not be among those who give a pledge, among those who guarantee debts. ²⁷If you have nothing with which to pay, why should your bed be taken from under you? ²⁸Do not move an ancient boundary marker that your fathers made. ²⁹Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.

Chapter 23

¹When you sit down to eat with a ruler, carefully consider what is before you; ²and put a knife to your throat if you are given to appetite. ³Do not desire his delicacies, for they are deceptive food. ⁴Do not wear yourself out to become rich; cease from your own understanding. ⁵When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for it surely makes wings for itself and flies to the heavens like an eagle. ⁶Do not eat the bread of a stingy man, and do not desire his delicacies; ⁷for as he calculates within himself, so he is. “Eat and drink,” he says to you, but his heart is not with you. ⁸You will vomit up the morsel you have eaten and waste your pleasant words. ⁹Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words. ¹⁰Do not move an ancient boundary marker, and do not enter the fields of orphans, ¹¹for their Redeemer is strong; he will plead their case against you. ¹²Apply your heart to instruction and your ear to words of knowledge. ¹³Do not withhold instruction from a child; if you strike him with the rod, he will not die. ¹⁴You shall strike him with the rod and deliver his life from Sheol. ¹⁵My son, if your heart is wise, my heart too will rejoice. ¹⁶And my inmost being will exult when your lips speak what is upright. ¹⁷Do not let your heart envy sinners, but remain in the fear of Yahweh all day long, ¹⁸for surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off. ¹⁹Hear, my son, and be wise, and direct your heart in the way. ²⁰Do not be among heavy drinkers of wine, among gluttonous eaters of meat; ²¹for the drunkard and the glutton will become poor, and drowsiness will clothe them with rags. ²²Hear your father who begot you, and do not despise your mother when she is old. ²³Buy truth, and do not sell it—wisdom and instruction and understanding. ²⁴The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, and he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him. ²⁵Let your father and your mother rejoice, and let her who bore you be glad. ²⁶My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes watch my ways. ²⁷For a prostitute is a deep pit, and a foreign woman is a narrow well. ²⁸Indeed, she lies in wait like a robber, and she increases the treacherous among men. ²⁹Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaint? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? ³⁰Those who linger over wine, those who go to search out mixed drink. ³¹Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it glides down smoothly. ³²In the end it bites like a serpent, and it stings like a viper. ³³Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart will speak twisted things. ³⁴And you will be like one lying down in the middle of the sea, like one lying down at the top of the rigging. ³⁵“They struck me, but I was not hurt. They beat me, but I did not know it. When shall I awake? I will seek it again.”

Chapter 24

¹Do not envy evil men, and do not desire to be with them, ²for their hearts meditate violence, and their lips speak trouble. ³By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; ⁴and by knowledge its rooms are filled with every precious and pleasant treasure. ⁵A wise man is strong, and a man of knowledge strengthens might. ⁶For by wise guidance you wage war, and victory is in many counselors. ⁷Wisdom is too high for a fool; in the gate he does not open his mouth. ⁸One who plans to do evil will be called a schemer. ⁹The scheme of folly is sin, and a scoffer is an abomination to people. ¹⁰If you show yourself weak in the day of distress, your strength is small. ¹¹Rescue those being taken away to death, and hold back those staggering to the slaughter. ¹²If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,” does not he who weighs hearts understand? Does not he who keeps your life know? And will he not repay a person according to his work? ¹³Eat honey, my son, for it is good, and the honeycomb is sweet to your taste. ¹⁴So know wisdom for your life: if you find it, then there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off. ¹⁵Do not lie in wait, wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; do not destroy his resting place. ¹⁶For the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in calamity. ¹⁷When your enemy falls, do not rejoice, and when he stumbles, do not let your heart be glad, ¹⁸lest Yahweh see and it be evil in his eyes, and he turn his anger away from him. ¹⁹Do not fret because of evildoers, and do not envy the wicked, ²⁰for there will be no future for the evil man; the lamp of the wicked will be extinguished. ²¹Fear Yahweh, my son, and the king; do not associate with those who are given to change, ²²for suddenly their disaster will arise , and who knows the ruin from them both?

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4/11/2026

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